ND's Crawdad is complete...finally

Well over the past few months I've been working on my boat to get it ready for the season. Since I live in the city, for the past few years I have had no where convenient to store it and I didn't get much use from it. I toyed with selling it, but they don't even make these boats anymore and they are pretty in demand since they are so light and durable. I decided to revamp and store the boat at Green Lane Reservoir. I posted previously how I laid out the wood for my floor, motor mounts, and depth finder mount. The next step was to sand, apply polyurethane, sand, apply polyurethane, sand, apply...you get the picture. Luckily, I was able to bring the wood and boat to the warehouse/shop of my office to work on it. I also lucked out with tools. What I didn't have I was able to borrow from friends or my company. After many coats of polyurethane, its finally complete. Here she is...
I'm a detail freak, so I made a scaled figure of the boat after making some measurements...

I started with a 4'X8'X5/8" sheet of construction grade plywood, laid out my cuts for the floor, and started rippin'

After some careful measurements and a few shots with the hole saw bit I had the holes cut out for the seat posts and framework...

I cut the pieces for the motor mounts and the depthfinder mount next...


Then it was time to sand and seal. I didn't take any pictures of that phase. It was relatively unexciting, dusty, and took about 2 weeks. After about 4 coats on each side of the ply and about 7 or 8 coats on the edges of all the pieces I was finally ready for reassembly. I rewired the trailer and toted the disassembled Crawdad down the turnpike to my office...bad move. On the way pieces started flying off of the boat and landed in the middle of the turnpike. Nothing like running down the highway on a sunday afternoon picking up pieces of your boat. At this point I was ready to send the whole rig over the Fairmount Dam. I perservered and tightened up the ratchet straps...I took it slow for the last few miles.
Last friday was reassembly day. My friend Charlie (cjcharlesworth) and I skipped out on happy hour and put in some time with the Crawdad. After a few hours friday, and another hour or so on saturday she was ready, grip tape, registration numbers and all...

Just look at that wood glisten in the flourescent light...looks like the floor of the Boston Garden

My girl Koren helped out too and posed for a couple pics with my new salt setup...

After the final assembly we threw her on the trailer and dropped her at Green Lane...no not Koren, the boat. Its now ready for the largemouth extravaganza we call the prespawn. All it needs is one of these stickers and it'll be complete...

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The boat will be so much more rigid with the full floor. My Tinboats sticker will be placed somewhere strategic on the boat or the trailer.

Congrats man! Looks awesome!

I still cant find one.......

Thanks Jim! My brother in law is looking for one too...no luck for him either.

nicdicarlo said:

Thanks Jim! My brother in law is looking for one too...no luck for him either.

Click to expand...

I missed this one by minutes:

https://boston.craigslist.org/sob/boa/622224080.html

I've never seen a Crawdad up close, and was wondering if the seats on your boat are factory equipped seats?

I seem to remember seeing stack of Crawdad hulls stacked along side a Coleman factory near New Braunsfeld, Texas many years ago. Were they manufactured there?

OldBill, the seats are factory seats. They come disassembled when you get them. Let me tell you this, they aren't exactly easy to put together either. The seats and framework is similar to that of a coleman canoe.

For anyone interested in a Coleman Crawdad there is one advertised on craigs list in Oklahoma City for $650.

https://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/boa/801272462.html

Looks like it's in very good condition.

I just got one for free.... I guess after all of the storms we've had in GA a few weeks ago, this one got away from somebody... I was wading in the creek fishing, when it come out of now where and struck me from behind... No HIN, Registration or anything, so there's no telling where it came from. 8' long and 4' wide... guess I'll put it in the pond and pull the dog around instead of him flipping me over in my rickety jon boat that I have there!